TOKYO — Fukushima nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) on Monday slashed its outlook for the fiscal year to March, warning it expected to lose about 120 billion yen or almost three times an earlier estimate.

The embattled utility at the center of the worst nuclear accident in a generation cited growing compensation and energy expenses for its weaker outlook, with its chief saying the firm would keep trying to cut its costs. [link to www.japantoday.com] .

TOKYO — Fukushima nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co on Monday received approval to tap the Japanese government for 697 billion yen more funds to compensate those harmed by the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

TEPCO issued a statement saying the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had approved the utility’s request to increase compensation by 697 billion yen, or 22%, to 3.24 trillion yen.

The increase was requested because of changes to requirements for receiving compensation. About 160,000 people were evacuated from areas around the plant after an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 caused reactor meltdowns and the worst radiological release since 1986. TEPCO has admitted it was insufficiently prepared for natural disasters. [link to www.japantoday.com] .

Westinghouse and Burns & McDonnell Enter Into Agreement to Further the Westinghouse SMR Reactor Project Development

Construction of a single Westinghouse SMR estimated to create nearly $3 billion in economic impact and thousands of U.S. jobs in more than 15 states

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 4, 2013 – Westinghouse Electric Company today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc. to further the development and licensing of the Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor (SMR), a passively safe design that has the potential to provide economical, secure sources of emissions-free electricity generation to the world’s rapidly changing and diverse markets. [link to us.vocuspr.com] .

The chairman of Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority says it will set the world's toughest safety standards for nuclear power plants.

Shun-ichi Tanaka made the remark at a committee hearing of the Upper House of the Diet on Wednesday.

Tanaka said he's been reflecting on the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and working to protect people and the environment as his mission. He added that he's been making decisions from scientific and technological viewpoints by ensuring transparency. [link to www3.nhk.or.jp] .

Power went out Wednesday for one minute at the No. 3 reactor of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, but the outage did not affect the reactor's operation or cause negative impact outside the facility, the plant operator said.

The utility said it believes part of the internal power supply at the reactor building was cut at around 2:30 p.m. as a trainee touched the circuit breaker by mistake. The Nos. 3 and 4 units at the Oi plant are the only reactors currently in operation in Japan in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in 2011. [link to english.kyodonews.jp] .

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the accident-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said Wednesday it plans to procure 800,000 tons of liquefied natural gas annually from the United States from 2017 as part of efforts to cut heavy fuel costs for non-nuclear thermal power generation.

The LNG, including liquefied shale gas, will come from a project planned in Louisiana by a U.S. firm. TEPCO said it has reached a contract of about 20 years with one of the sellers, Mitsui & Co., and is close to reaching a similar accord with the other, Mitsubishi Corp.

With TEPCO planning to secure an additional 1.2 million tons per year of the relatively cheap LNG from multiple supply sources, the company expects to cut fuel costs by about 50 billion yen annually in total. [link to english.kyodonews.jp] .

Duke Energy’s decision to dismantle a Florida nuclear power plant rather than undertake the costliest- ever U.S. atomic repair shows how rapidly cheap natural gas is remaking the U.S. power industry, hastening a shift from traditional fuels such as coal and uranium.

“The fuel du jour is natural gas,” Florida Public Counsel J.R. Kelly, the state’s official advocate for utility customers, said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I personally believe in fuel diversity. I’m just afraid the costs of new nuclear are going to be prohibitive.” [link to www.bloomberg.com] .

Power went out Wednesday for one minute at the No. 3 reactor of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, but the outage did not affect the reactor's operation or cause negative impact outside the facility, the plant operator said.

The utility said it believes part of the internal power supply at the reactor building was cut at around 2:30 p.m. as a trainee touched the circuit breaker by mistake. The Nos. 3 and 4 units at the Oi plant are the only reactors currently in operation in Japan in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in 2011. [link to english.kyodonews.jp] .

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32441628

Is that all it takes...? Touching a circuit breaker..?I've touched a lot of them.. None tripped unless I flipped the switch.

Duke Energy’s decision to dismantle a Florida nuclear power plant rather than undertake the costliest- ever U.S. atomic repair shows how rapidly cheap natural gas is remaking the U.S. power industry, hastening a shift from traditional fuels such as coal and uranium.

“The fuel du jour is natural gas,” Florida Public Counsel J.R. Kelly, the state’s official advocate for utility customers, said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I personally believe in fuel diversity. I’m just afraid the costs of new nuclear are going to be prohibitive.” [link to www.bloomberg.com] .

Power went out Wednesday for one minute at the No. 3 reactor of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, but the outage did not affect the reactor's operation or cause negative impact outside the facility, the plant operator said.

The utility said it believes part of the internal power supply at the reactor building was cut at around 2:30 p.m. as a trainee touched the circuit breaker by mistake. The Nos. 3 and 4 units at the Oi plant are the only reactors currently in operation in Japan in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in 2011. [link to english.kyodonews.jp] .

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32441628

Is that all it takes...? Touching a circuit breaker..?I've touched a lot of them.. None tripped unless I flipped the switch.

In 1989, the Department of Energy assumed responsibility for safely disposing of this waste, which threatens to leak into the bordering Columbia River and affect downstream industry, habitat and human health.

After attempting and abandoning three cleanup plans, the Energy Department in 2000 awarded a management contract to Bechtel National. The core of the project is a waste treatment and immobilization plant consisting of three buildings: a single pretreatment facility to sort high-radioactivity waste from the low-radioactivity kind and separate vitrification plants for each stream in which the waste will be combined with molten glass and then cooled for stable storage.

Plant operations under Bechtel were initially scheduled to begin by 2011 with total projected costs of $4.3 billion. The budget has since swollen to an estimated $13.4 billion, and the plant’s opening has been delayed until 2019. Many see this revised timeline as hopelessly, even recklessly, optimistic.

Of particular concern has been the use of a “design-build” protocol, in which construction is carried out as the design unfolds. Whereas standard nuclear guidelines call for designs to be at least 90 percent complete before breaking ground, Hanford’s construction is 55 percent complete with only 80 percent of the facility designed.

This approach has “led to significant cost increases and schedule delays” while also threatening the plant’s ability to operate safely once completed, the report said.

In his resignation letter last week, the Secretary of Energy, Stephen Chu, described Hanford as “the most complex and largest nuclear project in history.”

One problem identified in the latest audit is that over 40 years of plutonium production involving many different processes, little priority was given to keeping a detailed waste inventory. As a result, engineers now face a severe dearth of information about the waste contained in each of the 177 underground tanks – knowledge essential to separation of the waste streams.

Nor is sampling the waste a straightforward operation. Most tanks contains many waste products that tend to separate as oil and water do, meaning that a sample from one part of a tank indicates little about its overall contents.

What is more, the pretreatment plant requires “black cell” technologies, so called because once the plant is put into operation the high levels of radioactivity will preclude maintenance from taking place. These must operate continuously and flawlessly for up to 40 years.

Power went out Wednesday for one minute at the No. 3 reactor of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, but the outage did not affect the reactor's operation or cause negative impact outside the facility, the plant operator said.

The utility said it believes part of the internal power supply at the reactor building was cut at around 2:30 p.m. as a trainee touched the circuit breaker by mistake. The Nos. 3 and 4 units at the Oi plant are the only reactors currently in operation in Japan in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in 2011. [link to english.kyodonews.jp] .

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 32441628

Is that all it takes...? Touching a circuit breaker..?I've touched a lot of them.. None tripped unless I flipped the switch.

A delivery this month completed the journey of three steam generators from the Lingang manufacturing plant near Shanghai to the Yangjiang nuclear power plant site.

The steam generators will be installed at Yangjiang 2, one of four reactors being built at the site by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC). The first unit will begin generating power in the latter part of this year with the remainder following to 2017. [link to www.nucpros.com] .

Nuclear power can only survive if it’s competitive with alternatives. Even with China in the market, that’s unlikely.

Two years after Fukushima, a clearer picture of how the disaster has impacted nuclear power’s prospects is emerging. For some European countries including Germany, Italy and Lithuania, Fukushima was the last straw. Other developed countries, such as the UK and the US, are trying to carry on as if Fukushima has no relevance to them because their designs are different, their operators more competent and tsunamis not a risk. Developing countries seem the least affected and nuclear ambitions in countries such as Turkey, Vietnam and Bangladesh are apparently as they were.

Safety regulators have started to specify required upgrades to existing reactors, and it is no surprise that the newly reformed Japanese watchdog is asking for significant modifications. [link to www.chinadialogue.net] .

He was the CEO of Progress Energy, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., when Progress Energy Florida decided to pursue a "we-can-do-it-cheaper" repair of its sole nuclear power plant in the Sunshine State.

Johnson is the boss who accepted a staff recommendation that cutting a hole in Crystal River's containment vessel - to replace steam generators - would be less complicated and less expensive than using an existing hatch.

Wrong. As CEO, the buck stopped with Johnson.

Johnson's one-day tenure could bring him up to a $44.7 million post-exit payday. It includes $10.3 million in severance, bonus and benefits, states an SEC filing, as long as he keeps quiet and agrees not to criticize his former employer.

In November, Johnson was named CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest government utility. He will receive as much as $4 million a year in pay and bonus.

Big paychecks for doing a lousy job hardly sends the right message to the public.

GLP's best Fuku thread: Thread: *** Fukushima *** and other nuclear-----updates and linkstwitter: #citizenperth“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I knew the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”- Albert Einstein

GLP's best Fuku thread: Thread: *** Fukushima *** and other nuclear-----updates and linkstwitter: #citizenperth“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I knew the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”- Albert Einstein